May 13, 2022: SCOOP: Behind the McCarthy subpoena

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🗓️ 13 May 2022

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

When GOP Rep. Liz Cheney decided to risk everything politically and serve on Nancy Pelosi's newly created Jan. 6 investigative panel in the spring of last year, she made something of a vow to herself, according to people close with the Wyoming Republican: She would follow the facts wherever they went, and privately press for the panel to leave no stone unturned to get to the truth of the siege of the Capitol. No half-baked probes. No shrinking away from key witnesses, as Democrats had done in their past impeachments of Donald Trump. If she was going to do this, she was going to go all the way — even as some members of the panel, we heard back then, didn’t even want to investigate Trump’s actions that day. On Thursday, Washington saw the latest fruits of Cheney’s labor, when the Jan. 6 committee shocked This Town and subpoenaed five House GOP lawmakers to testify — including the likely next speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Well-placed sources tell us that Cheney — who was booted from her post as No. 3 Republican in the House one year to the day before the subpoenas were issued — was among those pressing hardest for this move, arguing that these GOP members had relevant information and they couldn’t just let them skirt without questioning. Listen to Playbook Deep Dive: ‘He absolutely betrayed me’: Steve Schmidt tells all about John McCain Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Presented by Farma.
0:03.5	Hey, good morning, playbookers and Roguminovalin.
0:06.3	It's Friday.
0:07.4	Today's show, why the key to Kevin McCarthy's subpoena to the January 6th panel was Liz Cheney.
0:12.7	It's your Politico Playbook Daily briefing.
0:19.0	When GOP representative Liz Cheney decided to risk everything politically and serve on Nancy Pelosi's newly created January 6th investigative panel in the spring of last year, she made something of a vow to herself, according to people close to the Wyoming Republican.
0:32.9	She would follow the facts wherever they went and privately pressed for the panel to leave no stone unt turned to get to the truth of the siege of the capital. No half-baked probes, no skimping out
0:42.6	on key witnesses, as Democrats had done in her past impeachments of Donald Trump. If she was going to
0:47.3	do this, she was going to go all the way. Even as some members of the panel, we heard back then,
0:52.0	didn't even want to investigate Trump's actions that day.
0:55.2	On Thursday, Washington saw the latest fruits of Cheney's labor, when the January 6th committee shocked this town, and subpoenaed five House GIP lawmakers to testify,
1:05.2	including the likely next speaker of the House, Representative Kevin McCarthy.
1:08.9	While placed sources tell us that Cheney, who was booted from her post as the number three Republican in the House one year to the House, Representative Kevin McCarthy. While places, sources tell us that Cheney, who was booted from her post as the number
1:12.1	three Republican in the House one year to the day before the subpoenas were issued, was among
1:17.1	those pressing hardest for the move, arguing that these GOP lawmakers had relevant information,
1:22.7	and they couldn't just let them skirt without questioning.
1:25.2	The decision came after months of internal debate
1:27.7	on the committee about the wisdom of such an unprecedented step, with even Chairman Benny Thompson
1:33.0	expressing skepticism about trying to force fellow lawmakers to testify. Other Democrats on the panel
1:38.6	were concerned that the summons could set a bad precedent. With Republicans primed to flip the House
1:43.1	in a matter of months,
1:49.8	there is almost no question that the GOP will retaliate by subpoenaing top Democrats, like Pelosi and Adam Schiff, in their own investigations. Sources tell us that Cheney and fellow panel member
	...

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